Build a Chat App with the PubNub CHAT SDK

PubNub's Chat SDK is recommended for developers who want to create new chat applications or add in-app chat to existing applications. The SDK supports everything you need to develop chat, from simple message exchange to advanced features like quoting, unread message counts, and emoji reactions. PubNub also provides several CORE SDKs that are use-case agnostic and can be used to create any real-time solution, but this tutorial will focus on the CHAT SDK.

Choose an SDK to get started in your preferred language:

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In this tutorial, you will learn how to set up and use PubNub’s Chat SDK to build a flexible chat application, featuring:

  • Direct, private (1:1) chat messages

  • Group messages with multiple participants

  • Create users and assign them to channels

  • An indicator when others are typing

  • Retrieve the conversation message history

  • Read receipts

  • Message reactions (emoji)